1.
Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
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Olympic Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Canada, located at Olympic Park in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district of Montreal. It is also called The Big Owe to reference the astronomical cost of the stadium, the stadium is the largest by seating capacity in Canada. After the Olympics, artificial turf was installed and it became the home of Montreals professional baseball and football teams, following the 2004 baseball season, the Expos relocated to Washington, D. C. to become the Washington Nationals. The stadium currently serves as a facility for special events with a permanent seating capacity of 56,040. The capacity is expandable with temporary seating, the Montreal Impact of Major League Soccer use the venue on occasion, when larger capacity is needed or when the weather restricts outdoor play at nearby Saputo Stadium in the spring months. The stadium has not had a tenant since the Expos left in 2004. Despite decades of use, the history of numerous structural and financial problems has largely branded it a white elephant. Incorporated into the base of the stadium is the Montreal Tower. The stadium and Olympic Park grounds border Maisonneuve Park, which includes the Montreal Botanical Garden, as early as 1963, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau sought to build a covered stadium in Montreal. However, even as powerful as he was, he did not have the power to such a guarantee on his own authority. Just as Charles Bronfman, who was slated to become the franchises first owner, was ready to walk away and it was enough to persuade Bronfman to continue with the effort. The design of the stadium resembles that of the Australian Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, soon after Montreal was awarded the 1976 Games, Drapeau struck a secret deal with Taillibert to build the stadium. It only came to light in 1972, the Olympic swimming pool is located under this tower. An Olympic velodrome was situated at the base of the tower in a similar in design to the swimming pool. The building was built as the stadium for the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The stadium was host to events including the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, football finals. The buildings design is cited as a masterpiece of Organic Modern architecture, Taillibert based the building on plant and animal forms, aiming to include vertebral structures with sinews or tentacles, while still following the basic plans of Modern architecture. The stadium was slated to be finished in 1972

2.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century

3.
Canadian football
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In Canada, the term football may refer to Canadian football and American football collectively, or to either sport specifically, depending on context. The two sports have shared origins and are related but have significant differences. Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s, and over time, active teams such as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have similar longevity. The CFL is the most popular and only major professional Canadian football league and its championship game, the Grey Cup, is one of Canadas largest sporting events, attracting a broad television audience, though it has been shrinking in recent years. In 2009, about 40% of Canadas population watched part of the game, in 2014, it was closer to 33%, great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame located in Hamilton, Ontario. Other organizations across Canada perform senior league Canadian football during the summer, the first documented football match was a practice game played on November 9,1861, at University College, University of Toronto. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was Sir William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. The first written account of a game played was on October 15,1862 and it was between the First Battalion Grenadier Guards and the Second Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards resulting in a win by the Grenadier Guards 3 goals,2 rouges to nothing. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick A. Bethune, the game gradually gained a following, with the Hamilton Football Club formed on November 3,1869. Montreal formed a team April 8,1872, Toronto was formed on October 4,1873, and this rugby-football soon became popular at Montreals McGill University. McGill challenged Harvard University to a game, in 1874 using a game of English rugby devised by the University of McGill. Later both the Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Union were formed, and then the Interprovincial and Western Interprovincial Football Union, the CRFU reorganized into an umbrella organization forming the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891. The original forerunners to the current Canadian Football League, was established in 1956 when the IRFU and WIFU formed an umbrella organization, and then in 1958 the CFC left The CRFU to become the CFL. The Burnside rules closely resembling American football that were incorporated in 1903 by The ORFU, was an effort to distinguish it from a more rugby-oriented game, the rules were an attempt to standardize the rules throughout the country. The CIRFU, QRFU and CRU refused to adopt the new rules at first, the primary differences between the Canadian and American games stem from rule changes that the American side of the border adopted but the Canadian side did not. The Canadian field width was one rule that was not based on American rules, as the Canadian game was played in wider fields, initially an amateur competition, it eventually became dominated by professional teams in the 1940s and early 1950s. The Ontario Rugby Football Union, the last amateur organization to compete for the trophy, the move ushered in the modern era of Canadian professional football. Canadian football has mostly been confined to Canada, with the United States being the other country to have hosted high-level Canadian football games

4.
BC Lions
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The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of the Canadian Football League. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season in 1954, and have played every season since, as such, they are the oldest professional sports franchise in the city of Vancouver and in the province of British Columbia. They have appeared in the leagues Grey Cup championship game 10 times, winning six of those games, the Lions currently have the longest active playoff streak, and are tied for the second-longest in CFL history, having made the playoffs for 20 straight seasons. Braley was a member of the Canadian Senate, Rugby unions had been organized in all of the Prairie provinces by 1907 and the Western Canada Rugby Football Union had been formed in 1911. However, it would not be until 1926 that the British Columbia Rugby Football Union was formed, the Vancouver Meralomas were the most successful British Columbian team of the era. They played in the Western Final in 1930 and again in 1934, the BCRFU stopped challenging for the Grey Cup following the formation of the Western Interprovincial Football Union. After the BCRFUs collapse in 1941, the Vancouver Grizzlies joined the WIFU and they played only one season, finishing 1-7, before the WIFU suspended operations for the duration of the Second World War. The Grizzlies did not return after the war, in 1951, a group led by Ken Stauffer and Tiny Radar were inspired by Vancouver Sun columnist Andy Lytles article to start a new football team in Vancouver that would play in the WIFU. The ownership group sent Radar and Orville Burke to represent them at the off-season WIFU meetings to initiate Vancouver’s bid for a team. The Burkes were told to return to the meetings the following year with a $25,000 good-faith bond if they could generate sufficient interest in the Vancouver area. The first meetings were held at the Arctic Club in November, the group in Vancouver, however, did not give up their efforts to have a franchise in the WIFU. On January 22,1953, the first annual meeting of the club was held, in that meeting, Arthur E. Mercer was hired as the clubs first president. Later in the year, Mercer, Bill Morgan, Bill Ralston and this time, they sold the idea of a fifth Western team, and Vancouver was granted a conditional franchise. They were required to provide a 15, 000-seat stadium, sell at least 6,500 season tickets, and guarantee travel expenses for the visiting teams. By Easter of 1953, Annis Stukus was then lured away from the Toronto Argonauts to return to the West to become the first public relations manager, general manager, and head coach of the franchise. During the rest of 1953, a fan contest was held by all of the media to pick the teams new name. The nickname was chosen because it represented a landmark and legend of the area

5.
Saskatchewan Roughriders
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The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League, the Roughriders were founded in 1910 as the Regina Rugby Club. Although they were not the first team to play football in Western Canada, the Roughriders are the third-oldest professional gridiron football team in existence today, and one of the oldest professional sports teams still in existence in North America. The team changed their name to the Regina Roughriders from the Regina Rugby Club in 1924, the Roughriders have played their home games at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field since 1936. The team draws fans from across Saskatchewan and Canada who are known as the Rider Nation. The Roughriders play in the smallest market in the CFL, and they have finished first in the Western Division seven times and have won the Western championship a record 28 times. They have played in the championship game 19 times and won four Grey Cups, the team has had 20 players inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. The Riders biggest rival is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, games between the two are sold out before the beginning of the season. The Roughriders Football Club and the city of Regina have hosted the Grey Cup three times, including a Roughrider win in the 101st Grey Cup, in July 2012, the Province of Saskatchewan announced that the Roughriders will have a new stadium completed in time for the 2017 season. They played most of their games at Park Hughes on 10th Avenue in Reginas north central section. The team was also a member of the Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union as it was organized on September 22 of that year. Regina played their first game against the Moose Jaw Tigers on October 1,1910, the Regina Rugby Club changed their colours again in 1912 to red and black and began an era of western football dominance. For every season of play in the SRFU, Regina won the championship, exerting their prowess over teams from Moose Jaw, Saskatoon. Beginning in the 1912 season, Regina won seven straight WCRFU titles, in 1923, Regina returned to power as they won their eighth western championship over the Winnipeg Victorias and earned the right to compete in the national playoffs. The club was given a bye and advanced straight to the Grey Cup finals for the first time, but were severely outmatched, losing 54–0 to Queens University at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. This was, and still is, the most lopsided defeat in Grey Cup history as the defending champion Queens won their third national championship at the expense of the Regina Rugby Club. Following their first Grey Cup loss, the changed their name to the Regina Roughriders in 1924 while retaining the colours of red. Ottawa also had a called the Ottawa Rough Riders, but the spelling was different

6.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
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The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League, the Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Field. Since the 1950 merger, the team has won the Grey Cup championship eight times, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club also recognizes all Grey Cups won by Hamilton-based teams as part of their history, which would bring their win total to 15. However, the CFL does not recognize these wins under one franchise, neither of these teams won a championship in the first decade of the 21st century. In their first forty years of existence, the Tiger-Cats were a franchise, qualifying for the playoffs in all. They are one of six teams in the modern era to win the Grey Cup at home and were the first to accomplish this when they did it in 1972. However, since 1990, they have missed the playoffs on eleven occasions and have won just one Grey Cup in 1999 and their lowest moment came when they lost a Canadian Football League record 17 games in one season with just one win during their 2003 season. The franchise has started to return to prominence after qualifying for the post-season in four of the past five seasons, including a loss in the 101st Grey Cup, founded,1950, a merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. Formerly known as, The Hamilton Tigers and Hamilton Wildcats, the owner/caretaker of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club is businessman Bob Young, who purchased the club on October 7,2003. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and graduated from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and his fortune was earned in the software industry and he is currently the owner and CEO of Lulu, a self-publishing website. As of 2011, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Executive Committee consists of three people, Bob Young, Caretaker, Scott Mitchell, President, and Doug Rye, although the current Hamilton Tiger-Cats were only founded in 1950, football in Hamilton goes back much further than that. The history of Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club can be traced back to November 3,1869 in a room above George Lee’s Fruit Store, the Hamilton football club played their first game on December 18,1869 against the 13th Battalion. In 1872, the Hamilton Football club began play at the Hamilton AAA Grounds, the Hamilton Tigers began play in the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1883 and won their first Canadian Dominion Football Championship in 1906 when the Tigers beat McGill University 29–3. The Tigers continued in the ORFU until 1907, when the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union was formed, the IRFU later became known as the Big Four and eventually, the IRFU became the East division of the modern CFL in the 1950s. In the following season, the Tigers won their first of five Grey Cups when they beat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club by the margin of 44–2. The Alerts were refused entry into the ORFU in 1913 with many of its players opting to join the Tigers, the Alerts gave way to a team under the name Hamilton Rowing Club from 1913–1915, who also played in the ORFU. 1914 saw the amalgamation of the Hamilton Alerts and the Hamilton Tigers. In 1915, in the final season, the Hamilton Tigers won their second Grey Cup

7.
Toronto Argonauts
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The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the team was founded in 1873, the teams origins date back to a modified version of rugby football that emerged in North America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Argonauts played their games at Rogers Centre from 1989 until 2016 when the team moved to BMO Field. The Argonauts have won the Grey Cup a record 16 times and have appeared in the final 22 times, Most recently they defeated the Calgary Stampeders 35–22 at home in the 100th Grey Cup in 2012. The Argonauts hold the best winning percentage in the game and have the longest active winning streak in games in which they have appeared. The Argonauts have faced every current western CFL team at least once in the Grey Cup, the team was owned by the Argonaut Rowing Club for its first 83 years, and has been owned by a series of business interests since 1956. The Argonauts were a fixture on the Toronto sports scene for decades, in May 2015 it was announced that a consortium of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainments Larry Tanenbaum and Bell Canada would acquire the team. Given the length of history, dozens of players, coaches. Since the teams foundation in 1873, the Argonauts name has been in continuous use, the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves franchises of Major League Baseball are older, but both teams have changed their name more than once, and the Braves have also changed cities. The Argonauts also claim to be the oldest professional team in North America. The claim is debatable, as the Hamilton Tigers date to 1869, given its nautical theme, the name Argonaut was adopted by a group of amateur rowers in Toronto in 1872. The Argonaut Rowing Club, which exists today, went on to found the football club with the same name a year later. Given their roots in a squad, the team is often referred to as the boatmen. In the 19th century, the most renowned rowing teams in the world were from the University of Oxford, the Toronto rowers, many of whom had associations with the English schools, adopted uniforms incorporating the light blue of Cambridge and the dark blue of Oxford. In turn, the footballers adopted the colours and the double blue would become synonymous with the team. Blue has become the traditional colour of top-level teams in Toronto, the teams other official colour is white. Its current helmet design features an Oxford blue background, with an Oxford blue and Cambridge blue round shield inscribed with a white, for most of the teams history, the logo featured some form of a boat, often incorporating a football. The first recorded game of what would become known as Canadian football was played in Toronto on November 9,1861, the game at the time was a modified version of English rugby and it gained popularity throughout the 1860s

8.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different

9.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the West Division of the Canadian Football League and they play their home games at Investors Group Field after many years of playing at the since demolished Canad Inns Stadium. The Blue Bombers were founded in 1930 as the Winnipeg Football Club, since that time, they have won the leagues Grey Cup championship 10 times, most recently in 1990. With 10 wins, they have the third-highest win total in the Grey Cup among active, though they are currently the team with the longest Grey Cup drought, no other CFL franchise has as many Grey Cup appearances as the Blue Bombers current 25. The Blue Bombers were also the first team not located in Ontario or Quebec to win a championship. H Guild & J. On June 10,1930, they amalgamated with all the teams in the Manitoba Rugby Football Union to create the Winnipeg Winnipegs Rugby Football Club, adopting the colours green. The Winnipegs played their first game against St. Johns Rugby Club on June 13,1930, in 1932, the Winnipegs and St. Johns merged into one team and adopted the colours blue and gold. Western teams had been to the Grey Cup game 10 times since 1909 and it was clear in those days that the East was much more powerful, outscoring their opponents 236–29 in these games. On December 7,1935, the Bombers got their first shot at winning the 23rd Grey Cup, the game was being held in Hamilton, with the home-town Tigers being their opponents. It was a day at Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association Grounds. Winnipeg was up 5–0 before many fans had reached their seats. Hamilton player Jack Craig let the opening kickoff bounce to the turf while a Winnipeg player promptly recovered the ball at the Hamilton 15-yard line, Winnipeg scored quickly on a Bob Fritz pass to Bud Marquardt to get the early lead. After scoring another touchdown on a Greg Kabat catch in the endzone and their lead was soon cut to three points in the second half after Hamilton scored a touchdown of their own, helped by a blocked kick that placed the ball on the Winnipeg 15-yard line. Then, after a Hamilton rouge, Winnipegs RB/KR Fritz Hanson caught a punt, and after a few moves, Hamilton would force a safety to bring themselves within six points, but failed to crack the endzone, getting as far as the Winnipeg four-yard line. The final score was Winnipeg 18, Hamilton 12, with that, Winnipeg had become the first team from Western Canada to win a Grey Cup. In 1935, before a game against North Dakota State, Winnipeg Tribune sports writer Vince Leah decided to borrow from Grantland Rice. He called the team the Blue Bombers of Western football, up to that point, the team had been called the Winnipegs. From that day forward, the team has known as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers

10.
Grey Cup
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The Grey Cup is the name of both the championship game of the Canadian Football League and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing Canadian football. It is contested between the winners of the CFLs East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian televisions largest annual sporting events, the Toronto Argonauts have 16 championships, more than any other team. The latest, the 104th Grey Cup, took place in Toronto, Ontario, on November 27,2016, the trophy was commissioned in 1909 by the Earl Grey, then Canadas governor general, who originally hoped to donate it for the countrys senior amateur hockey championship. After the Allan Cup was later donated for that purpose, Grey instead made his trophy available as the Canadian Dominion Football Championship of Canadian football. The trophy has a silver chalice attached to a base on which the names of all winning teams, players. The Grey Cup has been broken on several occasions, stolen twice and it survived a 1947 fire that destroyed numerous artifacts housed in the same building. The Grey Cup was first won by the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, play was suspended from 1916 to 1918 due to the First World War and in 1919 due to a rules dispute. The game has typically been contested in an east versus west format since the 1920s, the Edmonton Eskimos formed the Grey Cups longest dynasty, winning five consecutive championships from 1978 to 1982. While the Stanley Cup was created in 1893 as the Canadian amateur hockey championship, Grey instead offered an award to the Dominion amateur rugby football championship beginning in 1909. He initially failed to follow through on his offer, the trophy was not ordered until two weeks prior to the first championship game. The first Grey Cup game was held on December 4,1909, the trophy was not ready for presentation following the game, and the Varsity Blues did not receive it until March 1910. They retained the trophy in the two years, defeating the Hamilton Tigers in 1910 and the Toronto Argonauts in 1911. The University of Toronto failed to reach the 1912 Grey Cup, the Varsity Blues refused to hand over the trophy on the belief they could keep it until they were defeated in a title game. They kept the trophy until 1914 when they were defeated by the Argonauts, Canadas participation in the First World War resulted in the cancellation of the championship from 1916 to 1918, during which time the Cup was forgotten. Montreal Gazette writer Bob Dunn claimed that the trophy was later rediscovered as one of the heirlooms of an employee of the Toronto trust company where it had been sent for storage. Competition finally resumed in 1920 with the 8th Grey Cup game and it was the University of Torontos fourth, and final, championship. Competition for the Grey Cup was limited to member unions of the CRU, the Western Canada Rugby Football Union joined in 1921, allowing the Edmonton Eskimos to challenge. Facing the Argonauts in the 9th Grey Cup, the Eskimos became the first western team –, the Argonauts entered the game with an undefeated record, having outscored their opposition 226 to 55 during the season

11.
Montreal Alouettes
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The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice, the Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canadian Football League and last won the Grey Cup championship in 2010. Their home field is Percival Molson Memorial Stadium for the regular season, the original Alouettes team won four Grey Cups and were particularly dominant in the 1970s. After their collapse in 1982, they were immediately reconstituted under new ownership as the Montreal Concordes, after playing for four years as the Concordes, they revived the Alouettes name for the 1986 season. A second folding in 1987 led to a hiatus of CFL football in the city. The current Alouettes franchise was established in 1996 by the owners of the Baltimore Stallions, many players from the Stallions 1995 roster signed with the Alouettes and formed the core of the teams 1996 roster. The CFL considers all clubs that have played in Montreal as one franchise dating to 1946, the Alouettes had from 1996 to 2014 the CFLs longest active playoff streak, having missed the playoffs twice since returning to the league. The streak came to an end in 2015 and they have hosted a playoff game every year except 2001,2007,2013,2015 and 2016 and have never finished with fewer than six wins. Their only four losing seasons came in 2007,2013 and 2015 and 2016,2015 and 2016 marked the first time the team missed the playoffs in consecutive years since their re-activation. Major stars of the recent era include Mike Pringle, the CFL career leader in rushing yards, and quarterback Anthony Calvillo, the Alouettes are owned by American investment banker Robert Wetenhall. It is currently the only CFL team to have non-Canadian ownership, Jim Popp served as the teams general manager, his tenure with the franchise, which extended back to the Baltimore era, ended on November 7,2016. Founded, The original Montreal club was founded on April 8,1872, the original club was renamed as the Montreal Alouettes in 1946. However, the original Alouettes club ceased operations following the 1981 season and was replaced by a new team, the Montreal Concordes, the Concordes were rechristened the new Alouettes for the 1986 season, but ceased operations the day before the 1987 season was due to start. The current Montreal Alouettes franchise commenced play in 1996, uniform Colours, Blue, red, silver, white, and black Home Stadium, The Alouettes play at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium for the regular season, while they play at Olympic Stadium for playoff games. The Alouettes were first formed in 1946 by CFL hall of famer Lew Hayman along with businessmen Eric Cradock and they named themselves after Alouette, a work song about plucking the feathers from a skylark, which had become a symbol of the Québécois. They won their first Grey Cup championship in 1949, beating Calgary 28–15 led by quarterback Frank Filchock, from 1954 to 1956, they reached the Grey Cup in three straight years, but questionable defensive units led the Alouettes to defeat against the Edmonton Eskimos all three times. The team was purchased in 1954 by Ted Workman – and while the team continued to enjoy success, that all changed at the end of the 1960 season. To be more specific, the team was shaken by an announcement on November 10 – namely the trade of Hal Patterson and Sam Etcheverry to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for Bernie Faloney, Workman had concluded the deal without consulting with general manager Perry Moss

12.
Canadian Football League
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The Canadian Football League is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football and its nine teams, which are located in nine separate cities, are divided into two divisions, the East Division, with four teams, and the West Division with five teams. As of 2016, the features a 20-week regular season. The CFL was officially founded on January 19,1958, the league was formed from a merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union founded in 1907 and the Western Interprovincial Football Union founded in 1936. Rugby football began to be played in Canada in the 1860s, the CRFU was reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891, and served as an umbrella organization for several provincial and regional unions. The Grey Cup was donated by Governor General Earl Grey in 1909 to the winning the Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada. By that time, the sport as played in Canada had diverged markedly from its rugby origins, in 1956, the IRFU and WIFU formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Football Council. In 1958, the CFC left the CRU and became the Canadian Football League, as part of an agreement between the CRU and CFL, the CFL took possession of the Grey Cup, even though amateurs had not competed for it since 1954. The CRU remained the governing body for amateur play in Canada, initially, the two unions remained autonomous, and there was no intersectional play between eastern and western teams except at the Grey Cup final. This situation was analogous to how the American baseball leagues operated for years. The IRFU was renamed the Eastern Football Conference in 1960, while the WIFU was renamed the Western Football Conference in 1961, also in 1961, limited intersectional play was introduced. It was not until 1981 that the two agreed to a full merger, becoming the East and West Divisions of the CFL. With the merger came a full interlocking schedule of 16 games per season, Other team names had traditional origins. With rowing a national craze in the late 19th century, the Argonaut Rowing Club of Toronto formed a team for its members off-season participation. The football team name Toronto Argonauts still remains though it. After World War II, the two teams in Hamilton—the Tigers and the Flying Wildcats—merged both their organizations into the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, after the 1981 season, the Alouettes folded and were replaced the next year by a new franchise named the Concordes. In 1986 the Concordes were renamed the Alouettes to attract more fan support, the demise of the Alouettes forced the League to move its easternmost Western team, Winnipeg, into the East Division. In 1993, the league admitted its first United States-based franchise, after modest success, the league then expanded further in the U. S. in 1994 with the Las Vegas Posse, Baltimore Stallions, and Shreveport Pirates